War and Love Letters from Dr Adele Kubein to the Afghan Peace Volunteers

Dr Adele Kubein works at Oregon State University in Corvallis, USA and in the letters below over the past three years, she becomes vulnerable with the Afghan Peace Volunteers in Kabul, expressing her love with tears.

Dr Adele Kubein, in the terminal stages of lung cancer, wearing the Borderfree Blue Scarf, with #Enough! and peace written on her palm. From the Afghan Peace Volunteers, “Thank you, Dr Adele!”

Letter on 11th October, 2012

I hope others are listening. It is so hard for Americans to care in the midst of such plenty. Many of us think of you and cry for you, but not only tears we shed, we cry out for you as well.

Letter on 1st May, 2013

As always, I cry when I see the faces of the youth around you. I have written you before. I am the mother

of a woman-soldier who was sent to Iraq and lost her leg. I cannot tell you what horror it is to have your child kill. My daughter thinks sometimes it is better to be killed than to kill. I used to pray to God to take a part of her but not to let her kill. I would rather have her maimed than for her to have to live with it every day. But God in wisdom, did both. Now I work to stop others from being put in the same situation. I teach at a university, and I teach compassion every day. It seems as if what you all are doing is just a tiny drop in the bucket, but each one of us, if we all pull in the right direction, we will change things. There is no other way, and no other choice. You are not alone, there are many thousands here who care for you, in the pitiful ways that we are capable of. Dear youth, we ae sorry that we have laid the burden of becoming peaceful on your shoulders. We grown-ups should have done it long ago. I hope that you will teach us. Love, from Corvallis, Oregon.

Letter on 30th April, 2014

This call worked out better than I hoped. Your final message was perfect. The students told me how good it was to have this talk. I will continue to spread the word and to support you. I have a question: is there any way we might purchase some of the scarves? I know there are many problems to sending things via regular mail, but I thought I would ask. How can people here contribute and support you? PS, The poem for Earth Day made me cry. Whoever wrote it did a very good job. Once again, Salaam and thank you. Adele

Letter on 14th August, 2015

Dear Hakim and Peace Volunteers, I am sad to say that I will no longer be able to support your endeavors in this world. I have end stage lung cancer. My final wishes for all of you are that the peace you wish for will come. I will continue to spread the word about you all as long as I am alive, and once I pass to the other side, I promise I will work endlessly to support you who will be left behind. We will someday have our hopes fulfilled.

I want you to know that each photo and each message that you have sent about the children and the youth, has touched my heart and strengthened my resolve to work for peace. How can we sit by when you all struggle?

I will leave this world soon, but my beliefs are that the souls that are gone continue to work for the good of the world. I will continue to care for you all as best I might. My respect to Hakim and all of you with such courage.